Shakespeare's plays.
Subtitle: With his life. Illustrated with many hundred wood-cuts, executed by H.W. Hewet, after designs by Kenny Meadows, Harvey, and others.
By: Ed. by Gulian C. Verplanck, LL. D., with critical introductions, notes, etc., original and selected.
Contributors: Verplanck, Gulian C. 1786-1870.; Hewet, Henry W.; Collier, John Payne, 1789-1883.; Knight, Charles, 1791-1873.
Publisher: Harper & brothers
Published: 1844
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Other titles: Plays.; Harper's illuminated and illustrated Shakespeare.
Notes: Jaggard, W. Shakespeare bibl., p. 525; Modern Lang. Assn. of Amer. Publications, XXII, 661-666; Westfall, A. Van R. Amer. Shakespeare criticism, p. [128]-136.
The first American illustrated Shakespeare. Complete sets of this, the only printing, are scarce due to destruction of the plates in Harper's 1853 fire. Cf. Westfall.
Each volume has added. t.-p., illus.: The illustrated Shakespeare ...
Issued in parts, most with wrappers having title: Harper's illuminated and illustrated Shakespeare. The fascicles, though numbered, were not intended to be bound in numerical order. The order prescribed by the publisher and printed in the table of contents (v. 1. p. [iii]) is that followed in the LC copy; Verplanck, however, urged (v. 1, p. xiii subscribers to arrange the plays--within the three groups, Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies--in the order of their composition. To this end, the plays are each separately paged, without continuous pagination.
The text is based on Collier's; the notes, etc., selected from Malone, Singer, Collier, and especially from Knight's pictorial edition, from which most of the illustrations are taken.
Table of contents: title: v. 1. Preface. Order of the play. Life of William Shakespeare, by Rowe. Life ... abridged from Collier. Shakespeare's will. Folio editions [preface, et.] Shakespeare's name and autographs. Histories: King John. Richard II. Henry IV, pt. 1-2. Henry V. Henry VI, pt. 1-3. Richard III. Henry VIII.; title: v. 2. Comedies: Two gentlemen of Verona. Comedy of errors. Taming of the shrew. Much ado about nothing. Love labour's lost. Merchant of Venice. Merry wives of Windsor. Twelfth night. As you like it. Midsummer night's dream. Measure for measure. The tempest. All's well that ends well. Winter's tale.; title: v. 3. Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet. Othello. Hamlet. Macbeth. King Lear. Cymbeline. Timon of Athens. Coriolanus. Julius Caesar. Anthony and Cleopatra. Troilus and Cressida. Titus Andronicus Pericles.